Howard faces end of three-year truce

A three-year-long truce in the Tory civil war is likely to collapse this week as pro-Europeans and Eurosceptics call on Michael Howard to move in opposite directions to meet the threat from the United Kingdom Independence party.

Even before the strong performance by the anti-EU party had been confirmed last night, the two sides started to lay down the battle lines.

The pro-Europeans called on Mr Howard to stand firm and resist the temptation to move to the right on Europe, as William Hague did so disastrously in the run-up to the 2001 general election.

Eurosceptics demanded that Mr Howard ditch his carefully measured "live and let live" approach to the EU and woo Tory voters who seem to have defected to the Ukip in droves.

Lord Heseltine, the former deputy prime minister, gave a taste of the battle when he warned Mr Howard to resist the Eurosceptic "streamroller" in the Tory party. But he told GMTV: "I don't think he's in a winning position on that spe cific issue. If he doesn't take it on, there will be a lot of criticism; if he does take it on, again there will be a different lot of criticism."

From the other wing of the party, Mr Howard faced calls to recognise why Ukip has done so well.

Richard Shepherd, the arch-Eurosceptic Tory MP who caused John Major grief over the Maastricht treaty, said: "Ukip does reflect what the mainstream parties do not: real dissatisfaction with the way in which an elite governs this country."

Senior Tory sources were adamant last night that Mr Howard would stand by his approach to Europe which had appeared to unite the party's feuding factions.

Even Kenneth Clarke, the party's most fervent pro-European, backed the new policy under which the Tory leader welcomed continental moves to federalism as long as this was not imposed on Britain.

Mr Howard's approach, which was outlined in a speech in Berlin last February, led to the quietest period in the Tory European feud. This was welcomed by most sides who agree that the truce was formally enacted when the fiercely Eurosceptic Iain Duncan Smith, who made his name as a Maastricht rebel in the 1990s, decided to downgrade Europe after Mr Hague's disastrous "keep the pound" election campaign in 2001.

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